Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from:

Councillor Diane Lamb, Glinton & Wittering ward

Councillor Peter Hiller, Northborough ward

Councillor Andy Goodsell, Eye Parish Council

Councillor Joseph Dobson, Helpston Parish Council

Councillor John Bartlett, Thorney Parish Council

Councillor Paul Bianchi, Orton Longueville Parish Council

Ian Dewar, CPALC

Kim Sawyer, Head of Legal Services

Section 9 of the minutes of the meeting held on 27 March 2013 were amended to read Werrington already have a Neighbourhood Council in place and have shown an interest in setting up a Parish Council but have been financially unable to raise a petition. Netherton have also shown an interest.

The minutes were then approved as a true and accurate record.

A presentation was given to the meeting by Cllr Henry Clark of Peakirk Parish Council giving an update on what progress has been made on the pilot project. The key points were:

·        Deeping Gate Parish Council, Glinton Parish Council, Northborough Parish Council and Peakirk Parish Council have all had their applications to become Neighbourhood Planning areas approved.

·        These Parishes will apply for grants to assist with this from Locality with Peakirk already having applied for almost £7000.00 in grant money.

·        Steering group has been established to share information.

·        Individual plans to be established at Individual Parish working groups

·        Currently seeking professional assistance on matters such as drawing up and analysing surveys, communication, public engagement, publish the plan and the consultation process

·        Areas with a Neighbourhood Plan will receive a higher Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) than areas that don’t

·        Possible topics included in a plan will be down to the individual Parish but might include Schools, Recycling, Energy, Environment, Housing, Traffic, Cemeteries

·        It is hoped that plans for the approved areas could be in place by July 2014

The following questions were put to Cllr Clark:

How much grant money would be required to produce a plan?

The maximum amount that can be applied for is £7000.00 per plan and Peakirk has applied for approximately £6984.00 as we have estimated that it will cost around this figure to do a proper job with professional assistance.

Would it be viable for every Parish Council to apply for this grant; would there be enough money to go round?

We are effectively pioneering the process at the moment and it could well be that after the first wave of applications have been processed lessons will be learnt thus, potentially making the second wave of applications cheaper.

Where are the grants being applied from?

It is an organisation called Locality which is contributed to by various public and professional bodies.

Even if you have a Neighbourhood Plan in place it must conform to PCC’s Area Plan so is there any point in applying, especially in urban Parish’s?

Whilst it is true that you can’t do anything that contradicts the Area Plan you can add details like the number of houses to be allocated to a plot or the addition of affordable housing. Having a plan could benefit the Parish by allowing them access to more CIL money than if they did not have a plan.

Will these plans allow for recommendations for the future beyond the duration of the current city plan?

Can’t see why you shouldn’t attempt to look to the future past the current local plan. If you do your own plan it will help to avoid having things done to you unexpectedly.

We did a Parish plan three years ago does this mean that we will need to do another one?

The plan that you put into place three years ago will have no influence on planning applications as it didn’t have any statutory basis. You can take a lot of what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

A presentation was given to the meeting by Cllr Henry Clark of Peakirk Parish Council giving an update on the project to encourage the urban areas of Peterborough to become Parished. The key points were:

• Need to find a pioneering community who would like to become parished
• A community of between 3000 – 6000 electors would need to find upto fifteen people willing to become Parish Councillors, recruit a clerk and trigger a Community Governance Review
• Need to sell the advantages of having a Parish Council
• Coalition Government keen on seeing parishes more widely adopted
• A positive meeting took place this week between Ian Dewar of CPALC and Don Foster, minister for the Department of Communities and Local Government looking at the potential for grants to be made available for communities wanting to be parished
• A Parish Council can be created at anytime – Not bound by a timetable
• The whole process of creating a Parish Council could take between 12 – 24 months

Cllr Clark then asked the meeting to come up with suggestions that would help sell the idea of forming a Parish Council to a community. These were:

• Local empowerment
• Environmental enhancement
• To act as a link between parishioners and the City Council
• First port of call for parishioners – Parish Councillors have a wide source of expertise
• Local identity and local contact with residents
• Provide financial support to local amenities and groups
• Community led
• Open meetings
• First tier of Government – All elected by the community
• Planning applications go through Parish Council
• Minor issues can be solved quickly e.g. holes in road
• Parish Council can decide what is important for the area rather than wait for PCC
• Voice for parishioners
• Keep everybody engaged in what is going on
• Able to approach Parish Council for grants / funds
• Community assets – Building / piece of land can be bid for by Parish Council

Cllr Clark then clarified to the meeting that there was no intention of imposing a Parish Council onto a particular community but suggested that Werrington were in a strong position to put themselves forward as a pioneering community to become parished and therefore reap the benefits that have been discussed that come with being a Parish Council.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services went on to state that although PCC did have the power to impose a Community Governance review to potentially activate a new Parish Council it was not their intention to do so. Instead, it was the purpose of these discussions to find a community that wanted to put themselves forward to become a Parish Council and to work closely with the working group in order to achieve this. He also added that for a community to trigger a Community Governance Review then it would require the signatures of a small percentage of the residents on a petition to achieve this.

The Head of Neighbourhood Services spoke to the meeting about the inaugural parish conference held last autumn and asked the meeting to consider if they thought it went well and if it should be held again this year. The general consensus was that it did go well and that it should be held again. The meeting discussed what items they would like to see on the agenda were the following requests were made:

• All speakers to be more relevant to Parish issues
• Use as a networking opportunity
• Would like local MP involvement
• Less emphasis on workshops and more emphasis on speakers

The Head of Neighbourhood Services said that he would forward a questionnaire to all parishes to gauge their opinion on how the event should be delivered. He also informed the meeting that an agenda planning group was already in place and that if anybody wished to join then they should put their names forward to him.

The Chairman made the following statement:

With effect from the 1^st July 2013 Mark Emson will cease to be the contact officer for Parish Council Liaison. The new contact officer from this date will be Dania Castagliuolo.

CHAIRMAN

6:30 – 8:00pm